The ax has just fallen: this Thursday, June 29, 2017, the Sages of the Court of Auditors delivered their report on health spending in France.
And, as we can imagine, the results are not famous: according to experts, in 2018, expenses will increase by another 900 million euros – an increase in particular linked to the new medical convention (voted in August 2016, which governs the relationship between private doctors and Health Insurance) and the upgrading of careers in the hospital public service (voted in May 2016).
There is only one solution to keep up with the pace: tighten your belt. More specifically, the Court of Auditors says that 4 billion euros in savings will be needed before 2018.
To achieve this impressive goal, the director of the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam), Nicolas Revel, has just proposed a plan that would already save 1.94 billion euros, or 300 million more than 2016.
Outpatient surgery, generic drugs, fraudster hunting
Several avenues are mentioned: first, favor outpatient surgery, that is to say a patient care method that shortens the hospitalization time to just one day – in practice, the patient spends less than 12 hours in the hospital. Currently, in France, 4 out of 10 operations take place on an outpatient basis. This “ambulatory shift” would already allow savings of 470 million euros in 2018.
Second idea: better pay for surgical or physiotherapy procedures for patients with hip prostheses. The idea is quite simple: it is about “encouraging best practices to avoid re-hospitalization of patients”, which is costly for Social Security.
The promotion of generic drugs should also continue, for a saving which should reach 150 million euros in 2018. The CNAM also suggests limiting ambulance transport by favoring taxis or public transport: another 160 million euros of ‘saved. Finally, the hunt for fraudsters (both among doctors and among patients) should harden in order to save an additional 210 million euros.
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